Knauf Insulation (Shelbyville, IN) has announced that the Pipe and Equipment Insulation line are now verified as formaldehyde-free though the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute. The verified products include Earthwool 1000° Pipe Insulation, Insulation Board, Friendly Feel Duct Wrap, and Elevated Temperature products.

Count On Tools, Inc. (Gainesville, GA) now offers an expanded selection of Fuji XP SMT nozzles. The new nozzle designs enable highly accurate, repeatable, optimized chip placement. The new nozzles are available in both standard and special nozzle designs for odd-form components, such as LEDs, switches, and connectors.

Tolomatic (Hamel, MN) now offers a larger version of its integrated-motor rod-style actuator that is capable of delivering up to 3,000 pounds of force with a standard ball screw. The Tolomatic IMA55 actuator is designed for pressing, clamping, spot welding, and volumetric filling applications.

DURHAM, N.C (AP) — LED lighting maker Cree Inc. said it has bought Ruud Lighting Inc., which makes outdoor LED lighting, for about $525 million.
Cree said the purchase price consists of $372 million in cash, $211 million in stock and $85 million to retire outstanding debt, offset by about $143 million in future tax benefits related to the acquisition.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Paper producer Temple-Inland Inc. took responsibility Wednesday for a huge fish kill on the Pearl River that borders Louisiana and Mississippi, blaming a discharge from one of its paper mills.
In a statement, Austin, Texas-based Temple-Inland apologized "for the impact this issue at the mill has had on the Pearl River.

DALTON, Ga. (AP) — Executives of Dalton-based Shaw Industries say the carpet company is laying off employees at plants in the northwest Georgia cities of Ringgold and Eton.
The Daily Citizen reports (http://bit.ly/n7O8dn) that company officials declined to say how many workers are affected.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region contracted in August by the most in more than two years, adding to fears that the U.S. economy is weakening. Those fears sent financial markets tumbling in morning trading.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's survey of regional manufacturing activity fell to a reading of negative 30.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Caterpillar says global sales of its heavy equipment grew 35 percent in July even though last year's numbers were strong.
The world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment provided an update on sales Thursday in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors confirmed Wednesday that it will build a luxury version of its Chevrolet Volt hybrid.
The company said it is moving forward with the Cadillac ELR, which will run on electricity and carry a four-cylinder gasoline engine to generate power when the batteries run out of juice.

Taiwanese researchers are taking recycling to a new level with ''i2R e-Paper'', a rewritable electronic paper that can be re-used up to 260 times. The developers say their e-paper will soon replace the conventional paper used for signs and posters.
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Grand Rapids, MI– With the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Section 58 safety regulation coming into effect July 1, 2011, Owatonna, MN-based Pirkl Gas, Inc., knew that an upgrade to its propane facility was going to be in order. The new regulation dramatically alters the types of equipment that can legally be used in propane-gas systems, requiring all bulk-storage tanks with a volume of more than 4,000 gallons of water capacity to have their storage tanks fitted with either internal valves or an Emergency Shutoff Valve.

A lesson I learned from one of the Six Sigma masters is to dig into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system of a business and plot out the sales vs. inventory numbers of various products. We have ERP and MRP systems to help make it easy to mine the data of our daily or yearly productions, but it’s amazing how few of us know how to do so or use these systems for such purposes.

The VOC-TRAQ total volatile organic compound (TVOC) detector from Baseline Industries (Lyons, CO) monitors and records PID detectable TVOCs using any PC with a Windows operating system. Designed for ease of use, the USB compatible VOC-TRAQ can operate while connected to a PC, or it can remotely store up to 36,000 sample readings with the detector’s internal memory using the optional rechargeable power supply.

Wilden (Grand Terrace, CA) has announced that its Original Series metal Air Operated Double-Diaphragm Pumps (AODD) feature a design that is ideal for demanding liquid-transfer applications that feature a large amount of solids. This design makes them ideal for use in the pulp-and-paper industry.

Cimperial 1072-HFP from CIMCOOL Fluid Technology (Cincinnati, OH) is a single fluid to prevent, control, and reduce foam—even when fluids are used in high pressure delivery systems. Developed for use in high fluid pressure applications, it is recommended for all metals and all heavy-duty machining operations.

The Witte vibrating packer from The Witte Co. (Washington, NJ) gently vibrates flexible bulk bags, intermediate bulk containers, and other bulk shipping containers to increase their bulk density for improved efficiency in packaging operations. Applying linear vibration from underneath the bulk container, the packer creates a fluidizing action that removes air from in between the particles while protecting particle integrity, shape, and size.

Google's $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola Mobility has the potential to shake up the smartphone business landscape, and position Google to better compete with rival Apple.
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